Unexpected Arrival
by Angelwings23123
Summary: A little boy arrives in Denver, bringing a mystery along with him. A little JD story. AU
1. Unexpected Arrival

Disclaimer: the mag7 characters do not belong to me, I'm only borrowing them.  
Note: This is a new modern day AU & each chapter is a new story in this AU. The name of the AU is presently 'Unexpected', but could change in the future.  
Reviews would be much appreciated.

Unexpected Arrival  
  
The woman held fast to her four-year-old son's hand as she hurried toward the front desk at the airport. While waiting in line she quickly scanned the flight listings looking for ones that would be leaving soon. She bit her lip as she tryed to calculate which one would be the furthest away for the amount of money that she had. When she got to the counter she ordered a one way ticket to Denver, Colorodo. She paid in cash and quickly hurried to the departure gate. When she got there she pulled her son to a secluded corner and bent down to his level as he looked up at her with wide eyes.  
  
"You've gotta be a brave boy for Mommy," she said sniffeling.  
"Now remember; if anyone asks your name is JD...JD...Dunne, Dunne 'cause we're done with this," she paused as she straightened his collar, "and say you're going to Denver to see your father...but only if anyone asks--don't say anything unless someone asks you."  
  
Her eyes filled with tears as she gave him a hug. Then she straightened up and wiped the tears from her eyes. Taking a deep breath and straightening her shoulders she took her son's hand and led him to where the plane was loading. She gave him one last hug and a kiss as she left him in line. She blinked back tears as she watched him board the plane. "Good luck, my brave brave boy, may God watch over you," she whispered. He looked back at her as he boarded the plane--not fully realizing that that was the last time that he would ever see his mother. Once he was on board, she turned around and hurried out of the airport. Five hours later, she was dead.  
  
Once he was seated on the plane, the boy tryed unsucessfully to blink back tears. He sniffeled as he looked out the window through watery eyes as the plane took off. He had promised his mommy that he would be brave--and he would be. He would. The flight attendents were very nice to him on the plane. They knew that it was the first time that he had ever been on one by himself and they asked if he was excited about going to see his father. He nodded at thier questions, but didn't say a word the whole flight. Once they landed, one of the ladies led him out of the plane and asked if he saw his father. The boy bit his lip and carefully scanned the area. He let go of the woman's hand and ran to a man in a business suit that was standing by a row of phones. The woman smiled, glad that he had found his father so soon and returned to the plane.  
  
The man in the business suit looked down as the boy ran up beside him. "Did you need something," he asked, "are you lost?" The boy just shook his head and walked slowly away. The boy soon found a row of seats and sat down in one in the corner. He clutched at his brand new backpack that contained some brand-new clothes and a couple of brand-new toys--he hadn't been allowed to take any of his old stuff. Tears ran down his face as he thought. He was JD Dunne now...but JD Dunne didn't have a mommy or a daddy or anybody. He didn't even have a home...  
  
Ezra Standish frowned in thought as he watched the small boy walk away from him. He wondered why the boy had run up to him in the first place. Perhaps the boy was lost and he had somehow frightened him away. Well, it really wasn't any affair of his...and he should really leave to report to Mr. Larabee as he had just returned from an assignment. But something made him turn and follow where he had seen the boy last. As he turned a corner, he pondered which direction to go next. Upon scanning the area, his eyes fell on a small form huddled in a chair in the corner. He slowly approached the crying figure and bent down to his level. He smiled, flashing his gold tooth, "Are you lost? Do you require some assistance?"  
  
JD looked up at the man through watery eyes. His mother had taught him not to talk to strangers, but he was surrounded by strangers now and didn't know what to do. When the lady from the plane had asked him if he saw his father, he knew that she wouldn't leave until he did. He knew that it was very important that the lady didn't know that there wasn't anyone there to meet him. So he had scanned the area looking for someone that he could pretend was his father. He wasn't sure what made him run to the man that was with him now. Except, he had looked nice and it didn't look like he was mean or anything. And now the man was here and was smiling at him and he had a shiny tooth and he talked funny and he wanted to help him. So, JD sniffled and slowly nodded his head.  
  
Ezra held his breath as the boy studied him carefully. He smiled again when the boy slowly nodded his head and asked the boy his name.  
"JD...JD Dunne," he said quietly.  
"Well, JD Dunne, my name is Ezra Standish and it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."  
  
Two hours later when an intercom announcement proved no results, Ezra started to worry. Why was no one claiming this cute little imp? Surely someone had noticed him gone by now. He glanced at his watch and silently cursed. Mr. Larabee would no doubt be wondering where he was at by now. He looked down at the little boy who was clinging to his hand like a lifeline. He opened his mouth to explain that he had to leave now, but one look at those big hazel eyes and much to his surprise he found himself asking the boy if he would like to come with him. JD nodded eagerly and lifted his arms signifying that he wanted to be picked up. Not for the last time, Ezra Standish wondered what in the world he had gotten himself into.  
  
As Ezra walked into the ATF headquarters carrying a now sleeping JD Dunne he earned quite a few curious stares. He braced himself before walking out of the elevator on Team 7's floor.  
  
"Chris is about blow'n a gasket waiting for you Ez..."Buck trailed off noticing what the southerner was carrying. "That's a kid," he said surprised.  
  
"Your powers of observation astound me, Mr. Wilmington," Ezra answered sarcastically.  
  
"Where'd he come from?" Vin asked curiously.  
  
"The airport," Ezra answered distractedly looking for a place to lay JD down.  
  
"The airport?" Josiah repeated confused.  
  
"Where the hell have you been, Standish?" Chris ground out as he walked out of his office.  
  
"Ah, Mr. Larabee...may I procure the use your couch please?" Ezra asked relieved.  
  
Chris looked at the southerner, narrowing his eyes, "Why are you carrying a kid, Standish?"  
  
"Your couch, Mr. Larabee..." Ezra repeated, nodding to JD in his arms.  
  
Chris stepped out of the way and Ezra laid JD down gently on the couch.  
"An explanation would be good," Chris said as Ezra shut the door behind him.  
  
"You see...I had just returned from assignment and just phoned in my arrival when the child approached me, as it appears he was lost..." Ezra began.  
  
"So you just decided to bring him here with you?" Nathan asked disbelievingly.  
  
Ezra gave him a pointed look, "Of course not! I first took him to the proper authorities in order for them to broadcast the whereabouts of young JD," he nodded at the door, "However, this proved no results."  
  
"And then you decided to bring him here?" Josiah asked amused.  
  
"Well I..." Ezra abruptly shut his mouth as he really had no real explanation as to why he had brought the child with him.  
  
"Well, he can't say here," Chris said, clenching his jaw and trying not to think of another young boy who had been not much older than JD.  
  
And so, Vin called the police stations, Ezra called the airport, Josiah called the feds, Buck called social services, and Nathan checked for computer files. The search turned up no missing person's reports, no files, and no information. It was almost as if little JD Dunne did not exist. As the team pondered this new turn of events, a representative from social services arrived. She asked to see the child, then went to pick him up to take him with her. As soon as she reached down, JD woke up. His eyes widened and he immediately launched himself at Ezra. As he clung to the startled agent's legs, he whispered tearfully, "please don't leave me."  
  
Ezra soon found himself asking about how he could gain custody of JD, much to the surprise of everyone--including himself. And that was how young JD Dunne found himself in the care of one Ezra Standish. 


	2. Unexpected Changes

Unexpected Changes  
  
Once the proper paperwork had been filled out, JD was permitted to go home with Ezra. And so, with JD strapped into a booster seat (a contraption which Ezra hadn't even known existed until he was told that JD was required to have one to ride in the car) the two set off for home. It didn't really hit Ezra until they stepped inside the door and he turned on the lights that he was in no way prepared to take care of a child. He glanced around the room, taking in the white couch, glass figurines, and expensive carpets. Then, he glanced down at his young charge who was sleeping in his arms. He carried him into the guest bedroom and tucked him in. Looking down at the small figure, he realized that his life was about to change--drastically.  
  
The next morning, Ezra awoke to someone calling his name, or at least he thought it was his name.  
"Mr. Stan-ish? Mr. Stan-ish are you awake? Mr. Staaaan-ish, Mr. Stan-ish?"  
Blearily he opened one eye and saw a small boy standing beside his bed. His brow furrowed in puzzlement till he remembered the previous day's events. Then both of his eyes shot open, and he sat up in bed.  
"Good morning, Mr. Stan-ish," JD said happily.  
"Please, call me Ezra," he answered absently as he blurrily squinted at the clock. 6 am. Good lord, even the birds weren't up at this hour. He needed a shower, and coffee lots and lots of coffee. His scrambled for something to keep JD occupied. TV-- children enjoyed television. "How about you find something on the television that suits your interest while I get prepared for the day?"  
"K," JD responded and wandered into the living room to do just that.  
"JD--you don't always get up this early do you?" Ezra called.  
"No..."Ezra sighed in relief, till...  
"Sometimes I get up earlier."  
  
After showering and dressing, Ezra made his way to the kitchen to put on some coffee and to see what he could make the two of them for breakfast. After searching both the refrigerator and the cupboards, he came to the realization that he did not have any food fit for a child. With growing panic he realized that he didn't even know what children of JD's age ate. Or even what JD's age was. "Tell me, JD, how old are you?"  
"Four," JD answered holding up the corresponding amount of fingers.  
"And what is it that 4-year-olds eat?"  
"Milk, cereal, bread, hot dogs, samiches, cookies, sp'sketti, peanutbutter n' jelleee ..." JD listed.  
"Ah yes, thank you," Ezra said, cutting him off and adding grocery shopping to the list of things that they needed to do that day.  
  
After having breakfast at a nearby diner, the two set off for a day of shopping.  
Their first stop was to find items for the interior of the house: carpets, slipcovers, and items for JD's room. The trip was a success and buoyed Ezra's confidence that the others would be as well. The next stop was clothes shopping and while Ezra had never bought clothing for a child before, he figured that it couldn't be too different from buying clothing of any other kind. He was wrong.  
  
He found the boy's section easy enough, but was at a loss of where to go from there. He asked JD if he knew what size he wore, but all he got was a shrug. He tried holding up the clothing in front of JD, but many of the sizes looked the same to him. While pausing to contemplate this problem, he noticed JD turning in odd half circles presumably to look at something on his back.  
"What on earth are you doing?" Ezra asked puzzled by this odd behavior.  
"My tag has a number on it," JD answered.  
Ezra groaned inwardly, how could he have missed such a simple solution? With the size problem solved, they started their search only to discover that they had two very different tastes. Ezra liked the more conservative clothes, and JD was drawn to brightly colored ones. Ezra decided to compromise and thus ended up buying a wide and rather large assortment of clothing. He was astounded at the price for such small articles of clothing, but handed over his credit card nonetheless.  
  
Next was shoe shopping, and if Ezra had thought that clothes shopping was bad, shoe shopping was even worse. Learning from past experience, Ezra first checked the size of JD's shoe. That was the easy part. Finding shoes proved more difficult than he had thought. All he wanted was to find JD one pair of dress shoes and one pair of sneakers. The majority of the dress shoes, JD dubbed uncomfortable but finally after what seemed like 1,000 pairs, he found a pair that they could both agree on. They had the opposite problem with the sneakers in that JD liked pretty much all of them and deciding on a pair took over an hour.  
  
The exhausted pair then stopped for lunch, wherein JD informed him that he usually took a nap after lunch. So, afterwards the two stopped back at the house where both took a much needed nap. Then, feeling a bit more refreshed the two set off to finish their shopping.  
Grocery shopping proved to be a very interesting experience. Ezra decided to let JD pick out the foods that he liked and Ezra discovered foods that he never knew existed- -such as spaghetti in a can and macaroni and cheese in box. He expressed his horror at both and at the cereal which contained more sugar than anything else. JD patiently explained to him that that was the kind of stuff that kids ate. He was relieved that the rest of the food that JD picked was relatively normal.  
  
The last stop was the toy store and Ezra was amazed at the wide assortment available and was at a total loss as to what to purchase. Once again, he turned the shopping over to JD who was in absolute awe when Ezra told him he could pick anything that he wanted. At a loss at where to begin, JD hesitantly picked out a couple of matchbox cars. When this met with Ezra's approval and he was told he could pick out more, two action figures, a teddybear, a board game, a couple of books, a couple of videos, a box of crayons, a pack of construction paper, a set of plastic horses, and a set of cowboys and indians were added to the cart. JD announced that he was finished, and the two headed back to the house.  
  
Once inside the house, Ezra collapsed on a chair exhausted while JD plopped in front of the tv to watch one of his new videos. Glancing at the vast amount of bags that they had accumulated during the day, Ezra shook his head in bewilderment as he hadn't thought that they had bought quite that much stuff. Once again, he thought about how much his life was going to change. But, that night when JD gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and a hug and thanked him for all that he had done, he found that he didn't really mind.

Note: FYI, in my mind little JD looks like the kid in the Frosted Flakes commercial (you know the one with the 50 less sugar ad)


End file.
